This session will highlight two different, but related, TLT Fellows projects. In the first part of the session, attendees will learn about the TLT Fellows project centered around utilizing 360° video and virtual reality technology to enhance learning opportunities for students in a local, regional, and global context. Discussion will include why 360° video was identified as a technology worthy of investigation, how reusable learning objects have been created, and what the future holds for students to both consume and create educational content in this new medium. The second part of the session describes the initial production of an immersive reality experience oriented toward issues of sustainability. Specifically, this presentation describes perspectives on immersive reality guided by two overarching concepts: affordances and ecologies. In terms of affordances, this presentation first details three diverse approaches to virtual reality by questioning the role of immersive simulations in offering 1) non-human perspectives (chicken); 2) embodied interaction with data (distance of food travel); and 3) empathetic experiences through embodied storytelling (local farming).
Attendees will learn how faculty are leveraging emerging 360° video and virtual reality technologies to engage students with new and innovative learning experiences. Attendees will also be given the opportunity to explore 360° video examples and learn how they can get involved.
